ABHAINN SCHLATACH

See page 130 of the Scottish Guidebook.

Drive away from Fort William on the Road to the Isles, past Glenfinnan. You can see the drops mentioned below from the road. After about 1km, the river flattens. Park up and cross the railway: take care not to get run over!

Needs lots of water. The guide says bank-full, but we did it with more water than this. It was more like 2ft over the bank! Not a river to do when it isn't humping.

The main rapids in the top section are formed by bedrock ledges, with some pretty big holes. The first drop comes quickly, and consists of a double drop into a nasty-looking hole. This then runs into a slab and a big pool to collect your thoughts. Warning: the boof in the middle is tricky and you may end up running the slab upside-down.

The next drop is soon, with a difficult lead-in into a flare/boof off the right into the main flow. After this is a large slide round an island, guarded by a big rooster tail. Directly below this is a really nasty weir. We got off just above this, but there is a lower section which apparently is pretty rhodedenron-infested. Hence why we ran away!

Back to the FORT WILLIAM rivers page.